1. Field
The present application is generally directed to computer systems, and more specifically, to storage networking, and interface protocol and server/storage migration.
2. Related Art
Storage Area Networks (SAN) such as Fibre Channel (FC) interconnects utilize zoning access control lists (ACL). The zoning ACL is configured by the Node Port (N_Port) Name Identifier (e.g., WWPN: World Wide Port Name), the Port Identifier (PID), the Domain/Port Index pair (DP Pair), or the Domain/Fabric Port (F_Port) Index Pair.
A SAN also has optional network features such as Quality of Service (QoS), ingress traffic limitation, and traffic isolation. These network features are configured by the Node Port (N_Port) Name Identifier, the Port Identifier or the Physical Port index number. The network features may also have optional parameters such as the QoS parameter, the traffic limitation parameter, and the traffic path information (set of Domain/N_Port index pair and Domain/F_Port index pair). These parameters are called zone attributes or network attributes.
The FC interconnects standard referenced in FC-LS-2 (Fibre Channel Link Service—Version 2) defines the Node Port Identifier Virtualization (NPIV). To utilize NPIV, the Virtual Node Port (VN_Port) is moved over from the physical Node Port (PN_Port) to the other PN_Port using a Fabric Discovery (FDISC) request, and controls the virtual WWPN identified VN_Port. When the VN_Port issues a NPIV FDISC request, the name server inside the SAN switch allocates a new N_Port ID for the VN_Port and sends a FDISC response Link Service Accept (LS_ACC) to the VN_Port that issued the FDISC request.
NPIV further utilizes a Node Port Name Identifier (WWPN). Zoning or optional network features may also utilize a Node Port Name Identifier or other identifier such as PID or a Domain/Port Index pair.